


Not on the Rocks

by foolyoulove



Category: Uncharted
Genre: (the booze is a temporary coping mechanism and non-problematic), Alcohol, Gen, Heart-to-Heart, Unplanned Pregnancy, background Nate/Elena, rated for language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-08
Updated: 2016-03-08
Packaged: 2018-05-25 10:28:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6191476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/foolyoulove/pseuds/foolyoulove
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Sully unlocked and swung the door open, at which point he noticed the bottle of whiskey held loosely at Nate's side. 'Hey, Kid,' he offered by way of greeting. 'Was I expecting to see you today?'</p><p>Nate laughed briefly, albeit a little maniacally. 'No, no, definitely unexpected.'"</p><p>or: once upon a time, Sully accidentally sort of became a dad. Why not carry on to another generation?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not on the Rocks

**Author's Note:**

> Author is apparently constitutionally incapable of _not_ writing unintended-pregnancy fic for her ships. Sorry not sorry.
> 
> Basically, I had to get this out of my system now in case Hurricane Sam ruins this OTP in _Uncharted 4._

It was barely 9 o'clock in the morning when the unexpected knock at the door caused Sully to slosh hot coffee out of the cup that had been halfway to his mouth. He hissed out a curse and shook his hand dry as he headed to the door, the peephole revealing a fidgety Nate with an unreadable expression on his face. Sully unlocked and swung the door open, at which point he noticed the bottle of whiskey held loosely at Nate's side. "Hey, Kid," he offered by way of greeting. "Was I expecting to see you today?"

Nate laughed briefly, albeit a little maniacally. "No, no, definitely unexpected."

"Okay, then... would you like to come in?"

"Sure," he said, crossing the threshold.

"Isn't it a little early to have hit the bottle?" Sully asked as he closed the door behind them.

"Huh? Oh, this?" Nate raised his hand slightly, like he'd almost forgotten what the weight in his hand was. "I haven't started yet."

"Could've fooled me, the way you're acting. What happened to your day job?"

"Took a personal day."

"Uh huh. And Elena—"

"Had to go into the office. So I have plenty of time to sober up before she gets home."

Sully got a sinking feeling. "You're not, uh, on the rocks again, are you?" He looked pointedly at Nate's left hand.

Nate turned towards the kitchen. "On the rocks? No, Sully, this is good whiskey, I was planning to drink it straight."

"You know what I meant." Back still turned, Nate gave an exaggerated wave with the fingers of his left hand, showing the titanium band still adorning his ring finger. He set the bottle on the counter as he pulled two glasses out of the cabinet. "Okay," Sully said, dragging the word out as he followed him. "Then, why are we having whiskey for breakfast?"

Nate didn't say anything as he poured out two fingers' worth for each of them, handed one of the glasses to Sully, and threw back about half of his own in one swallow, standing below the still-open cabinet. 

"You're kind of starting to worry me, here." 

Nate opened and closed his mouth a couple times as he stared at the glass in his hand. He finally sighed, apparently giving up on trying to find words. Instead, he reached into his back pocket for a folded piece of paper, which he handed to Sully as he moved to the table and sat down. 

Sully unfolded the paper and regarded a grainy, amorphous black-and-white image; the text along the top included timestamp from earlier that morning, alongside "FISHER, ELENA." It took him a moment to process that he was looking at a copy of a sonogram. "Well, I'll be damned."

"Yeah, how about that, huh?" 

Oh, Sully knew that scared-shitless tone of voice, and he didn't like it. "I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess that this was a surprise." Nate only drained his glass in response, as Sully sat down next to him at the table. "Didn't we have a talk about ways to prevent this sort of thing? I mean, I know that was probably almost thirty years ago, but..." Nate cast him a sidelong glance. "Wrong time for jokes? Yeah, probably." Sully took a sip of his own whiskey, then, and waited for Nate to speak again.

"She'd been feeling 'off' for a few weeks—we were even joking that she was going through menopause early—before the possibility even dawned on her. You should have seen us pacing around waiting on the drugstore test, like a couple of scared teenagers. Except instead of being way too young for this, we're getting way too old."

"You two are young for your age, you'll be fine."

"You know the whole thing is considered 'high risk' _because_ of her age? A whole lot can go wrong, still. And even if...this," he gestured haphazardly, "actually happens, then the kid is saddled with me for a dad."

 _Here we go_ , Sully thought. "Listen, Kid..."

"Don't 'Listen, Kid,' me right now, Sully. I'm going to fuck this all up, and you know it. You did your best with me, and I'm grateful, but I'm not exactly a model citizen."

"Okay, look, I don't know anything about raising a kid from birth, but I do know you, alright? You're gonna fuck up. You're probably gonna fuck up a lot—"

"Thanks for the pep talk—"

"Now, shut up and let me finish." Nate looked properly admonished, and Sully continued. "I think that's human nature, though, right? You gotta mess up sometimes. The fact that you're so worried about it, though, makes me think you'll do right more often than not."

"But what if..."

"'What if,' what? Life throws you curveballs, you figure it out. Hasn't stopped you before."

"What if I can't handle it, and I run off scared again, and—"

"You screwed up when you walked out on Elena, sure. But you two are good now, and you wouldn't walk out on your kid."

"How could you possibly know that for sure?"

"You're not your old man, Nate. You'll do better." Nate looked shellshocked—their lives were pretty sharply divided into Before Cartegena and After Cartegena, and they very rarely crossed that line. Sully pushed on though, after giving Nate's shoulder a squeeze. "That's what this boils down to though, right?"

Nate fiddled with his wedding ring for a beat before answering. "Yeah, maybe. But you're right, I'm not my father. And besides, the only old man in the room is you."

Sully used the hand still lingering on Nate's shoulder to give him a playful shove. "Leave it to you to trample all over a moment."

"You love me anyway, Grandpa," Nate said, turning his best shit-eating grin on him.

"Yeah, Kid. You got me there," Sully replied, as he stood up to stick the sonogram image on his fridge.

 _Grandpa_ , huh? He might be able to get used to that.

**Author's Note:**

> this will not lead to babyfic.  
> This will NOT lead to babyfic.  
> t h i s w i l l n o t l e a d t o b a b y f i c  
> ...except I said that about Pepperony, and then I wrote babyfic _and_ kidfic so, uh, never say never.


End file.
